We’ve all been there at a gig when we’ve forgotten our carpet and the bass drum starts to run away. I think many of us will have also been playing on a carpet and had a drum creep at least a little.
The Kick Strap aims to stop all of that by removing the need for a carpet altogether, allowing you to play on any surface; they quote concrete, wood, grass, brick and dirt.
Now, aside from the fact I’d never want to play my drums after plonking them down in a field or a building site without a carpet, I can see the appeal to not lugging a rug around.
The strap itself is sturdy in construction and features a metal hook at one end, a silver plate with a hook at the other and a buckle for adjusting the length of the nylon strap in the middle.
To make sure I was using the Kick Strap correctly I went to the internet and searched for it. There was indeed a video to explain how to use the strap but I found myself bemused by the fact that the initial KickStart video featured a drummer who was portrayed as a dibbling Neanderthal who forgot his carpet and needed his bass player to help him out… I’m not making it up, actual dribbling occurred in this video!
The idea is simple, the hook attaches to the tube of your throne, you adjust the strap for length and it hooks underneath your bass pedal to hold it in place.
It was a little fiddly at first to get into position and get the length set. But once in place the strap did stop forward movement.
I say forward, because I have a student who plays and pushes to the side when he does so, and the bass drum has a tendency to follow. So I put it to the test and although improved it wasn’t completely secure from this sideways motion.
The bigger issues for me is that I dislike there being anything under the bass pedal itself. I want that flat on the floor but now it’s ever so slightly raised over a thin nylon strap. The result is that it wobbles a tiny bit on a hard floor.
It’s also important you get the right depth on the pedal plate end of the strap, for your pedal. If not, the strap will have to great or too shallow a depth to hold the pedal correctly and may interfere with the pedal clamp onto the hoop itself.
As a concept I think it deserves recognition. I know players who prefer the sound that comes from NOT having a rug where this may come in useful, but for me it just wasn’t quite comfortable.
They say it’ll stop your forgetting your rug ever again and it’s easy to leave one of these in a pedal bag or hardware case, but I like the security that comes from a rug and that is lacking with the use of the Kick Strap.
Maybe I’ll leave one in the car, just in case I do one day forget my rug.
Rob Crisp
